Easy Win, Hard Question (Warriors 123, Sixers 80)

How bad are the Philadelphia 76ers? Marreese Speights career high bad.

There wasn’t much tension in the Warriors’ 123-80 beginning-to-end destruction of the 76ers, but Mark Jackson managed to provide some immediately after the game. The comedy first, then the drama.

The Warriors have struggled recently against bad teams, but Philadelphia — fresh off a 45-point loss to the Clippers — sunk below even the Warriors’ ability to play down to opponents. The only team in the NBA that turns the ball over more than the Warriors failed to initiate any offense and let the Warriors’ shooters run free at the other end. The game was on its way to being a comfortable win when Marreese Speights got unbelievably hot. Speight’s play is often unconscious, but rarely in the positive sense of the word. The often-maligned reserve’s 7-8, 17-point second quarter was downright Curryesque. There were improbable and-ones, magical off-the-dribble pull-ups and even a heat-check three. When it was over, whatever resolve the Sixers pieced together from the wreckage of Sunday’s game had been broken. The second half was largely perfunctory, made memorable only by Speights cracking up at the line to the “MVP” chants echoing in the Oracle and the vague sense of unease that grew as Jackson played Curry deep into the third quarter despite a 40-point lead.

When the seemingly endless garbage time of the second half finally wound down, the Warriors were left with a nearly perfect lead-in to their mid-week match-up with the defending champions. David Lee returned from injury and played well. Harrison Barnes showed renewed aggressiveness, both off the ball and on it. Andre Iguodala was a stabilizing force running the second unit. And Stephen Curry looked every bit the All-Star starter that he is. All of this should have left Mark Jackson in a good mood, ready to laugh with the media about how Marreese Speights kept calling for the ball even when he was too tired to run down the court with the rest of his team. But when Jackson stepped to the stand for post-game comments, things took a strange turn.

For those looking for the full context, Bay Area Sports Guy provides it with tweets, video and transcripts. The short version: Mark Jackson made an odd — potentially meant to be funny — comment pre-game about Andrew Bogut hurting his shoulder while sleeping. Bogut was asked about it pregame, called it “absolutely ridiculous,” said he “didn’t know where it came from” and wondered whether he should “read between the lines with it.” Bogut told Bay Area News Group reporter Diamond Leung that he would talk to Jackson about it, but didn’t want to disturb game preparation. When Jackson was next before the media, during the post-game interview, the Bogut situation was the first thing on his mind:

It makes sense that Bogut’s apparent confusion and frustration would put Jackson on edge. Jackson has a carefully-cultivated reputation as a players coach. Win or lose, the Warriors are going to have a high-quality locker room where guys say the right things. Bogut’s comment put a dent in the image Jackson constantly reinforces about “my guys.” I read his first press conference statement as a slightly awkward attempt — no one was twisting his words — to dismiss any suggestion that there was dissension among his ranks.

Then, as with the beginning on many great stories, people asked the right follow-up questions. Ethan Sherwood Strauss asked Jackson how exactly he thought his words had been twisted. Jackson responded with an extended bit about the media going “for the home run” and trying to make a story where there allegedly is none. According to Jackson, “I said he legitimately was hurt. I expressed how it happened. So please put the whole thing in there, and not half the story.” Jackson misses the point — the media isn’t leaving out any part of the story. The issue here is reconciling two very different stories: Bogut’s that he was hurt in a game, and Jackson’s that Bogut was hurt in his sleep. Even in his post-game comments, Jackson maintains that the “sleep” story is “how it happened.”

Bay Area Sports Guy follows up with the next logical question — has Jackson talked to Bogut about any of this yet?

Jackson’s statement, particularly about 10 games over .500 being something “you guys haven’t seen … in a long, long time,” sounds like someone laying a case for why he should keep his job. The Bogut kerfuffle touched such a nerve with Jackson because it went to the core of his best argument for more time with this group of players. If the Warriors lose in the first round or, nightmare scenario, don’t even make the playoffs, there will be serious talk about whether Jackson got everything he could from the line-up, or whether they need someone more experienced to take them to the next level. Jackson’s strongest rebuttal is that the players love him, and that he’s the best person to motivate them to play even better. But if a key veteran player is going public with what sounds an awful lot like frustration, Jackson’s narrative becomes weaker and more complicated. He’s left to fall back on his comparative success, and to chastise the media for demanding more given meager past expectations.

Taken as a whole, it’s not the back-and-forth of a coach secure in his job. On the night of the year’s biggest blowout victory, Jackson should have been enjoying a light break from the questions weighing down his first season of high expectations. Instead, because of Jackson’s statements, the questions just got heavier.